Category Archives: beheadings

Philippine officials reported Monday that fighters with the terrorist organization Abu Sayyaf have beheaded a fisherman, Noel Besconde, who was taken hostage during the hijacking of the Ramona 2 late last year. Besconde was the vessel’s captain.

Unlike Abu Sayyaf’s last four hostage beheadings, which the group carried out when ransom deadlines passed, the killing appeared to be motivated by the need for mobility. “The reason why he was beheaded is that he was delaying their movement,” said Brigadier-General Cirilito Sobejana.

It appears the horrific Jihadist attack on the Catholic church in Normandy last month was surely a planned operation, with at least one conspirator 500 miles away…

French prosecutors filed preliminary charges of terrorism against a third man detained on suspicion of collaborating in last month’s murder of a French priest, suggesting the slaying was the work of a broader group of Islamic State followers.

The 21-year-old was detained Monday in the area of Toulouse, a city 500 miles south of the church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray where the attack took place in late July…

The latest man to be charged was in contact with (the attackers) though his cellphone and through the mobile phone app Telegram, the prosecutor’s spokeswoman said. He traveled from Toulouse to Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray and was in the town on July 24 and 25, on the eve of the attack.

Here at Terror Trends Bulletin, we have periodically reported on Jihadist groups and activities in the Philippines. This is a theater in the global jihad that is largely ignored by the so-called “mainstream” media.

Over the past week, a Canadian hostage has been murdered by Abu Sayyef jihadists and now we have the revelation that the group plotted to kidnap prominent citizens, evidently to impress the Islamic State.

Philippines President Benigno Aquino highlighted the advancements of Abu Sayyaf, a local extremist group, saying that its fighters had planned to kidnap his sister Kris and boxing star Manny Pacquiao. Aquino also added in a statement that he was “appalled” by the beheading of Canadian citizen John Ridsdel on Monday by Abu Sayyaf militants, believed to have taken over 20 other foreigners hostage.

What all this indicates is that the global Jihadist movement is getting stronger and spreading its violent attacks to more areas of the world, giving them more training areas, launching pads and recruiting fodder with which to wage war against America and the West.

Former Army Ranger Peter Kassig has been murdered by the barbaric savages of the Islamic State.

This unfortunate turn of events was certainly not a surprise. The Islamic State doesn’t release hostages. They behead them or crucify them, based on Islamic religious doctrine.

We have viewed the 16-minute propaganda video from the Islamic State. We will not link it here.

The video actually depicts an orchestrated mass beheading, not just the murder of Kassig.

One thing stood out in the video when we were looking at the twenty or so Jihadis doing the beheadings (see image below): There were many different ethnic groups represented.

Clearly, the Islamic State has gathered recruits from Muslims around the world.

This is something we already knew, but there are still many in the West who are in denial about the widespread support for and outright popularity of the Islamic State amongst the umma around the world.

A late report here from The Muslim Issue blog: evidently, one of the Jihadis doing the beheadings was a former medical student from the UK. This is one of a succession of Muslim physicians or medical students who have committed acts of Jihad…

Since 9/11 a lot of people have promoted themselves as “terrorism experts.” Most are not.

Many of these new “terrorism experts” hail from the halls of American academia–places that frankly provide very little in the way of background for the study of terrorism. It’s as if the same bunch who got it wrong during most of the Cold War saw an opportunity in the field of terrorism and became instant experts overnight.

There are a lot of problems with this phenomenon of overnight terrorism experts, not the least of which is the fact that oil-rich Gulf states such as Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have showered US academic institutions with millions of dollars. This has resulted in terrible bias inside our universities. These same sources of funding, after all, provide funding to Jihadist terrorist organizations. It’s a neat set-up. Islamists fund the Jihadis over there and fund universities here in the West to influence what is taught to our young people.

So, what we have, in many cases, are instant “terrorism experts” who are beholden to the very community that promotes terrorism.

We’ve seen a possible outcome of this process in an atrocious article published by Politico magazine on October 7th. The title is Why ISIL Beheads Its Victims.

The lead author for this screed was a man named Robert Pape, who is on the faculty at the University of Chicago and actually serves as the director of the Chicago Project on Security and Terrorism. Pape is a pure academic. Nothing in his background commends him as an expert on terrorism. His biography reveals a man who has spent 30 years with his head buried in books, with no evidence of real-world experience or interaction with the enemy.

In Why ISIL Beheads Its Victims, Pape attempts (very weakly, as befitting a pure academic) to make the case that the Islamic State (he tellingly refuses to acknowledge the name by which the enemy refers to itself) is beheading victims purely for publicity purposes. He denies any connection between Islam and the practice of beheading.

Amazing.

The first mistake Pape makes is treating the beheadings of a few Western hostages as the only cases worth examining. It’s not a huge surprise that someone would come to the conclusion that the beheadings were just a publicity stunt if the only beheadings one was looking at were the beheadings of a few Western hostages.

But when one takes a broader view and examines the numerous beheadings carried out by the Islamic State, Al Qaeda and other Jihadist groups, many of which received no publicity at all, the inescapable conclusion is quite different. Moreover, there are also the numerous crucifixions that have been carried out by Jihadists, which aren’t simply designed as publicity stunts either.

All that said, there is no doubt that the Jihadis are sending a message with these methods of execution. It’s just not the message that Pape supposes from his purely Western mindset and lack of real world experience.

The Islamic State is in fact carrying out beheadings for a specific reason. They are carrying out the Sunnah of Mohammed. You see, Muslims are supposed to follow the perfect example set by the prophet Mohammed and they are supposed to follow the commands from Allah and the commands uttered by Mohammed. An examination of Islamic doctrine shows that the basis for beheadings comes from Islamic scripture, both non-abrogated verses in the Quran and examples from the life of Mohammed laid out in the Hadith and the Sirah, which are the other two components of the Islamic trilogy along with the Quran.

Rather than reproduce the evidence in Islamic scripture here that both justifies and calls on Muslims to behead and crucify Kaffirs, here is a link to an excellent article on the subject from Faith and Freedom International. Note that if you live in a predominantly Islamic nation, this web site may be blocked by Muslim censors:

Armchair “terrorism experts” like Robert Pape go to ridiculous lengths to ignore and deny the basis in Islamic doctrine for acts of Jihadist terrorism, such as beheadings, crucifixions and other atrocities.

But in the real world there are actual reasons why Jihadis do what they do, how they do it.

We are all left to wonder why Pape and his ilk in the ivory towers deny the truth.

Yisrael attended the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City, a mosque affiliated with the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA).

ISNA is the largest Muslim organization in the US. It was exposed as a Muslim Brotherhood front in documents stipulated to by the defense and entered into evidence in the largest terrorism financing prosecution in US history, the US v the Holy Land Foundation. ISNA was named as an un-indicted co-conspirator in that trial. Later, when ISNA tried to get that designation removed or retracted, a federal judge in New Orleans refused their request, calling the designation accurate and proper.

The only thing that kept ISNA from prosecution on terror charges was the corrupt influence of Attorney General Eric Holder, who shut down the ongoing investigation.

One of the Imams at the Islamic Society of Greater Oklahoma City was Suhaib Webb, who BreitBart reports was close to Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula Imam Anwar al-Awlaki.

Webb is now affiliated with the Islamic Society of Boston (another ISNA mosque), the notorious mosque co-founded by convicted Al Qaeda terrorist Abdurahman Alamoudi and attended by the Boston Marathon bombers, the Tsarnaev brothers. As USA Today reported back in April 2013, the Islamic Society of Boston has been absolutely littered with Jihadis and terrorists over the years.

CAIR, like ISNA, was also exposed as a Muslim Brotherhood front in the Holy Land Foundation trial and also named an un-indicted co-conspirator in that trial. FBI surveillance evidence also revealed that CAIR is essentially a US arm of HAMAS, a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

More recently, in association with the Oklahoma beheading, CAIR has sought to distance itself from Jah’Keem Yisrael. Adam Soltani of CAIR-Oklahoma stated that “Islam stands clearly opposed to violence in any kind and in no way could or faith ever support the actions of this man.”

The available evidence, dating back 1400 years to the earliest origins of Islamic doctrine to the actions of literally dozens of Jihadist organizations on every continent, save Antarctica, contradicts this ridiculous statement by Soltani.

Anyone who has been paying attention knows that Jihadis from around the world have been using beheading in gruesome, flamboyant manner. The incident in Oklahoma was anything but isolated.

There have been a series of beheadings of hostages by Al Qaeda and the Islamic State; Daniel Pearl, James Foley, Steven Sotloff, David Haines and Herve Gourdel are just a few of the Westerners beheaded by Jihadis.

The point of all this is that there is a definite pattern here. There are many ways to kill someone. But Muslim jihadis choose to behead their victims.

Why?

Because Islamic doctrine says that they should. Multiple verses in the Koran and stories from the Hadith urge Muslims to behead the enemies of allah and demonstrate that the prophet Mohammed led his Jihadi fighters in mass beheadings. Under the Islamic doctrine of Sunna, Muslims are supposed to follow the perfect example set by Mohammed. And Mohammed beheaded his victims.

Pay no attention to the psychobabble coming out of the news media and the federal government–Islamic doctrine is the foundation for these beheadings. It is in their scripture. Period.

Be especially wary of taqiyya (sacred deception to promote Islam) coming from Islamic leaders and organizations when it comes to beheadings.

It’s not the first time we have seen this intentional lying. CAIR in particular has a long history of this activity as we discussed in an article back in 2013:

CAIR in particular is a troubling organization that can only be described as a nefarious 5th Column unit.

Here are some concerns that thousands of Americans have about CAIR:

CAIR was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the US v. Holy Land Foundation, the largest terrorism financing prosecution in US history.

The Holy Land Foundation was a Texas-based charity whose officers were sentenced in May 2009 to between 15 and 65 years in prison for funneling over $12 million to Hamas. One of the sentenced officers, Ghassan Elashi, is the founder of CAIR’s Dallas chapter. Elashi’s illegal activities took place while he was affiliated with CAIR.

CAIR opened its first office in Washington, D.C. with the help of a $5,000 grant from the Holy Land Foundation.

In a formal letter to Senator Jon Kyl of Arizona dated 28 April 2009, the FBI stated that during the Holy Land Foundation trial, “evidence was introduced that demonstrated a relationship among CAIR, individual CAIR founders (including its current President Emeritus and its Executive Director) and the Palestine Committee. Evidence was also introduced that demonstrated a relationship between the Palestine Committee and HAMAS, which was designated as a terrorist organization in 1995. In light of that evidence, the FBI suspended all formal contacts between CAIR and the FBI.”

In March 2011, Muthanna al-Hanooti, one of CAIR’s directors, was sentenced to a year in federal prison for violating U.S. sanctions against Saddam’s Iraq.

In January of 2011, the CAIR California chapter published a poster promoting a conference called “Know Your Rights and Defend Our Communities.” That poster prominently featured the following slogan: “BUILD A WALL OF RESISTANCE DON’T TALK TO THE FBI.”

On March 22, 1994, During a panel discussion at Barry University in Florida, CAIR Executive Director Nihad Awad said: “I used to support the PLO, and I used to be the President of the General Union of Palestine Students which is part of the PLO here in the United States, but after I researched the situation inside Palestine and outside, I am in support of the Hamas movement more than the PLO.”

On February 2, 1995, U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White named CAIR Advisory Board member and New York imam Siraj Wahhaj as one of the “unindicted persons who may be alleged as co-conspirators” in Egyptian Islamic Group leader “Blind Sheikh” Omar Abdel Rahman’s foiled plot to blow up numerous New York City monuments.

On April 19, 1996, in its first published report on alleged anti-Muslim discrimination, titled “The Price of Ignorance,” CAIR cited the arrest of Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman (the Blind Sheikh), the Egyptian cleric serving a life sentence for conspiracy to blow up New York landmarks in 1993, and the detention of senior Hamas leader Musa Abu Marzuq, as “incidents of bias and violence” against Muslims in the U.S.

On July 4, 1998, former CAIR chairman Omar M. Ahmad, told Fremont, California’s daily newspaper, The Argus, that “Islam isn’t in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant, he said. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on Earth.”

In October 1998, CAIR demanded the removal of a Los Angeles billboard describing Osama bin Laden as “the sworn enemy.” According to CAIR, this depiction was “offensive to Muslims.”

In 1993, CAIR spokesperson Ibrahim Hooper told the Minneapolis Star-Tribune that “I wouldn’t want to create the impression that I wouldn’t like the government of the United States to be Islamic sometime in the future. … But I’m not going to do anything violent to promote that. I’m going to do it through education.”

In September 2003, CAIR’s former Community Affairs Director, Bassem Khafagi, pled guilty to three federal counts of bank and visa fraud and agreed to be deported to Egypt. Federal investigators said that a group Khafagi founded, the Islamic Assembly of North America, had funneled money to activities supporting terrorism and had published material advocating suicide attacks against the United States. Khafagi’s illegal activities took place while he was employed by CAIR.

In 2006, the co-founder of CAIR’s parent organization, IAP (Islamic Association for Palestine), Sami Al-Arian, was sentenced to 57 months in prison on terrorism charges for financing Palestinian Islamic Jihad, a designated terrorist organization according to the US State Department.

On August 12, 2006 CAIR helped to coordinate a number of demonstrations in support of Hezbollah and “resistance” groups fighting American forces in Iraq.

Randall Todd Royer, who served as a communications specialist and civil rights coordinator for CAIR, trained with Lashkar-I-Taiba, an al Qaeda-tied Kashmir organization that is listed on the State Department’s international terror list. He was also indicted on charges of conspiring to help al Qaeda and the Taliban battle American troops in Afghanistan. He later pled guilty to lesser firearm-related charges and was sentenced to twenty years in prison on April 9, 2004. Royer’s illegal activities took place while he was employed by CAIR.

Onetime CAIR fundraiser Rabih Haddad was arrested on terrorism-related charges and was deported from the United States due to his subsequent work as Executive Director of the Global Relief Foundation, which in October 2002 was designated by the U.S. Treasury Department for financing al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations. Haddad raised money for the Ann Arbor, Michigan chapter of CAIR.

On April 20, 2002: Nihad Awad addressed an anti-Israel rally in Washington D.C. while standing next to Hezbollah flag.

On October 12, 2001: Ghazi Kankan, executive director of CAIR’s New York office at the time, defended Hamas’s targeting of Israeli civilians. He told the Jewish Week that, like Hamas, he considered all Israelis over the age of 18 to be “military” because “they are all reserves.”

Given the number of individuals associated with CAIR who have been convicted on terrorism-related causes, as well as the disturbing associations and statements from CAIR and its officials, it is very difficult to take their statements on violent Jihad seriously.